Putting it simply, the Northern Territory rocks!! Having just returned from five days exploring some of its best known geographical sights in the area, I am blown away by how awesome Australia is, whilst been kind bummed at how much I am left to see and discover. Exploring Uluru, The Olga's and Kings Canyon with Brother Rick, Anthony, Henry and Ale while literally sleeping wherever we stopped the car was an epic experience, and earned us the title of ‘Adventurers’ over ‘Tourists’. I’m expecting this post to be quite large because I came home with seven hundred photos and many experiences to share, so sit back, read and enjoy!
Day 1 – The drive to Alice Springs on the rather friendly Tanami.
So you may remember me blogging at 4.30am just before the La Salle crew embarked on their long journey home and we headed in the opposite direction to Alice Springs. Our predicted 5am start was pushed back to 6.45am, but been the adventurers we were, time meant nothing on this journey of discovery. The Tanami Road extends between Halls Creek and Alice Springs, and for most of it, it’s gravel. The Balgo Hills turnoff is situated 240kms along the road, closest to Halls Creek so we had a good 800kms left to go to get to Alice on some super bumpy roads. The lucky thing was that we only had 90kms to go until we hit the Northern Territory border and for some reason, they care a lot more for their part of the road than WA does. So the predicted motion sickness, stopping every half an hour to throw up out the window and basically just hating the entire journey that I had feared fortunately never happened. I think also spending seven months driving around sideways on some horrifically bumpy roads has toughened up my stomach. Thank the lord!
A rust bucket of a car just outside of Balgo.
We crossed the border just after 8am, meaning we went ‘into the future’ as the guys put it and set our clocks to 10.30m. I was most unimpressed with the border signs. As you’ll see in the photo, they are in a good need of a serious makeover, but then I remembered that it’s The Tanami and very few people pass through, let alone taking real note of the signs. I must therefore have been a strange adventurer to not only take a photo with the sign, but with me and the sign as well. I blame it on the bucket list! Having not slept much the night before, I was very happy to go forward an hour and a half meaning we were one and a half hours to sleeping!!
The Troupie.
Oh hey there NT!
Before the hot weather begins, the Aboriginal people light fires in the bush to not only promote better growth but also to limit the effects of an out of control summer fire. For miles and miles along the Tanami, the bush on either side was burnt to a crisp. Growth was only just beginning to come back however it looked barren and dry, certainly living up to its desert name. The only problem was that all the good bushes and trees had been burnt which meant it was awkward finding a decent toilet when we stopped for a break. I’m slowly mastering the art of peeing behind a bush but certainly am jealous of the guys who bragged about been able to just turn their backs on the car at the roadside and relieve themselves. I found a decent sized termite mount to squat behind that shielded me from the car; however as luck would have it a car from the other side drove past at the exact time I was just undoing my shorts. That was one of only three cars we spied on the road during the entire journey. Thanks universe, thanks! Needless to say I waited until a decent toilet fit with a door and seat was found along the rest of the journey.
We stopped at a little roadhouse just 200kms out of Alice Springs called Tilmouth Well. I had taken that leg of the journey and was constantly disappointed driving to the roadhouse as the road kept changing from gravel, to sealed tarmac and then back again. There would be a few miles of each and every time the sealed road was in sight, I got excited, until the gravel was spied again. It certainly was annoying however Tilmouth Well meant the arrival of constant tar so that was definitely something to celebrate after 500kms of bumping, shuddering and crashing into everything crammed in the troupie. The little roadhouse certainly was impressive with a very cheap art gallery selling some exquisite pieces of Aboriginal art. Not only were they spectacular, but well in my price range and far cheaper than most of the Balgo pieces. I found a lovely one that was the size I had wanted to buy, super cheap and even painted with techniques similar to the Balgo artists. Nervous about it getting damaged along the journey and whilst we were camping, I left it there to be bought if it was still on sale on the way back home. If it was there, it was to be!
The rather impressive art gallery.
About 150kms from Alice Springs the road went to been just one lane and Brother Rick took over driving, due to the fact that it was quite tricky passing when other vehicles came past. I took this opportunity to catch some shut eye and woke just as we were turning off The Tanami. Already, I loved the Northern Territory.
For dinner we lashed out and went to Hungry Jacks, my first taste of fast food in quite a while. While we ate, we planned where we would sleep and what tomorrow would bring. Henry, who had organized the whole trip studied the map carefully and found two possibilities. As darkness fell, Anthony, Ale and I fell asleep in the back of the troupie while Henry and Brother Rick drove towards our destination, carefully trying not to hit the many stupid kangaroos that jumped across the road. Every so often they stopped to study the map until we pulled into a rest area two hours later. All tired, we pulled the swags off the roof, brushed our teeth and climbed into bed under the stars. Who needs a hotel when you have ant free ground, a comfy swag and stars twinkling over your heads? Certainly not adventurers!
Our campsite by day.
Day 2 – Walking around big rocks!
We woke rather late for campers – 8.30am. The night before, we had all made a pact that when three of the five adventurers were awake, the remaining two had to be woken. Unfortunately for the two early risers, Brother Rick and Antony who woke two hours earlier, the STM crew happened to be quite heavy sleepers so they entertained themselves with attempting to light our camping stove, playing rugby and when that got boring, sitting and talking in loud voices wondering when we would awake. Eventually when we were all awake, I showered with wet ones behind a bush (many thanks to Mr. Alistair Gordon for a pack of 144 – saved my life this trip!), brushed my teeth and clambered in the car ready for an exciting day. We were planning on getting to the Uluru Katu Tjuta National Park, home to Uluru and lesser known but just as spectacular Olga's, a formation of rocks bigger than Uluru and similar to a small lot of Bungle Bungles. Most people think Uluru is close to Alice Springs; I certainly did! But it’s actually 335kms south, closer to the South Australian border. Therefore, it was quite a journey.
We stopped at Erldula, an absolutely massive roadhouse to fuel up and get some bottled water. It was here that Brother Rick disallowed us from talking to ‘tourists’, concerned they would corrupt our minds with their non-adventuring ways. He was joking of course, but with many tour buses stopping there it was interesting to see so many different nationalities converging in the Northern Territory! Everywhere we went we played ‘pick the accent’, a game where we tried to guess where someone was from by how they spoke. None of us were very good at it but we spotted French, German, Austrian, Russian, Kiwi, Scandinavians and Swedish individuals along our trip. And of course, fellow Aussie adventurers.
I wasn’t expecting to be able to see Uluru from quite a distance, but 50kms away we spotted a huge red mound erupting from a flat landscape, and were excited to discover that was the rock we wanted. It was absolutely amazing! No amount of pictures could have prepared me for what I saw, even from such a distance. It was quite moving and every time we passed behind a hill that blocked my view of it, I craned my head in every direction to catch another glimpse of the spectacular landmark. We headed closer to the National Park and stopped at the Ayers Rock Resort to do some shopping, about five kilometers before the station. This I was not expecting. In the middle of nowhere is this absolutely huge resort large enough to house over 5000 people, fit with a caravan park, petrol station and even a shopping mall! We were walking through looking for just a little shop when we reached the mall and discovered three restaurants, a news agency, souvenir shops, an ANZ bank branch and even an IGA that was bigger than the one I worked at in Perth. It was actually kind of ridiculous but I suppose with Uluru been such an internationally renowned feature, of course a resort of such mammoth proportions was needed. However not for one second did I wish I was enjoying five star luxury over camping; I think roughing it added to the experience!
A map of the resort.
We all had to pay $25 to get into the National Park and while this was expensive, it was a fee that covered three days of adventuring. As we drove towards Uluru, it got more and more spectacular. Sure, it looks exactly like the photos but the size is just incredible. It’s over 3.6kms long, 348m high and has a circumference of 9.4kms. Many geologists also believe that the roots of the rock to down 6000m, making what we see not even 6% of the actual formation. It’s crazy!
As the adventurers we are, we decided to walk the entire circumference of the rock, a walk totaling 10.6km. Throw in the fact that we were probably completing it in the hottest part of the day, it didn’t sound ideal. However looking up at the amazing sight of Uluru every step of the way made it a very enjoyable walk. My camera was clicking like crazy as I attempted to capture every unusual crevasse, hole and feature Uluru had to offer. One thing I didn’t count on were the ‘No Photo’ zones around Uluru. Sights and formations sacred to the local Ananagu people were not allowed to be captured, with signs on either side advising tourists and adventurers not to take photos or record. While I appreciated their culture and beliefs, a lot of what was not allowed to be photographed was very beautiful and would have made for great images and I wished it could be shared.
Brother Rick; 'This is called Cathedral Rock'.
Me; 'Really?'
Brother Rick; 'No, I just made it up then because it sounded cool'.
Henry demonstrating how big it is.
The 'No Photography sign'.
An absolute miracle happened as we were walking; spots of rain! At first I thought the drop of water on my hand was from either Anthony waving his water bottle around or perspiration dripping from my face (it was so hot) but then felt it again and again. Then when Brother Rick also felt it from five meters away, we celebrated! Sure, it wasn’t much, but even a drop of rain in the desert means something. It was very cool!
On the shady side of Uluru, the vegetation was a lot more plentiful and the rocks told Dreaming stories, retold to tourists by guides bringing groups into special areas. Something I liked the most was Maggie Springs, a permanent freshwater collection of water in a little rock gully that was very peaceful. It would have made a lovely swimming spot but was believed to contain the Rainbow Serpent and disturbing it would have been very disrespectful. This was one of the last features to be admired on our walk and after almost three hours we arrived back at the car, a little tired and hot and bothered but happy to say that we walked around Uluru.
Maggie Springs.
You are allowed to climb Uluru, but it isn’t really appreciated. The way I understand it is that people used to without anything to aid them along the way, and the sheer face of the rock combined with very little experience of most of the people that climbed meant that many people were seriously injured or died. Dotted along the rock are plaques of those who died trying. Therefore to try and limit injury and death, handholds and chains were built along a less elevated part of Uluru to aid anyone who wishes to climb. However, it is closed regularly when there is hot weather, strong winds or a 5% possibility of storms, leaving very small windows of opportunities. There are also signs and everywhere detailing the importance of the rock and why you shouldn’t climb it, and it really is frowned upon. Basically I think it’s allowed to limit casualties and fatalities and it’s sad that the culture of the people can’t be fully appreciated and observed. In the National Park, we’re on the land of the Ananagu people and therefore should observe their wishes.
The walkway up to the summit.
With sunrise and sunset been rather spectacular events at Uluru, we headed over to the sunset viewing car park rather early to get a good spot. Sitting up on the top of the troupie admiring the view, we reaffirmed our Adventurers title. I didn’t think the sunset would be anything spectacular; the sky was very overcast and cast long black shadows over the beautiful red rock. However as the sun set lower and lower it peeked through a crack in the clouds bathing the entire area in golden light and turning Uluru from dark red to a stunning orange. It was absolutely spectacular! Words cannot describe what an amazing experience that was; seriously, go and see it for yourself, it’s absolutely stunning!! As the sun set and Uluru got brighter and brighter, someone played on their car radio Somewhere over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, such a fitting song and in that moment, everyone just went silent and enjoyed such a moving experience. It gives me shivers just reliving it!
Just to prove I was there.
I have over 50 photos of the rock, and couldn't decide which ones are the best, so you get them all :)
Just after dusk.
After stocking up on junk food at the petrol station (it’s ok, we walked 10.6kms and sweat out our body weight) we went and found a nice little clearing off the side of the road where we set up camp and Henry built a lovely fire. I didn’t think I’d get much sleep due to two stupid things that Henry said. The first was that our camping area reminded him a little too much of the movie Wolfe Creek; finding a nice little track off the side of the road leading into a little clearing. The second was when he made the fire, saying that fire attracts dingoes. He really is the master when it comes to freaking us all out right before bedtime!
Our dingo attracting campfire.
Day 3 – Early Starts, Walking around even BIGGER rocks and Long Drives.
I awoke at 4.20am to the sound of Henry playing bongo drums. Apparently that was a good way to wake people up, but I didn’t really need the annoying sound to get me out of bed. We were up at such an ungodly hour to go and see the sunrise at Uluru, something that was on my bucket list and one of the things I was super keen to check off. Driving into the National Park at 5am, I was pretty sure we were the first people to go in that day. Unfortunately we were the third, but still that’s quite impressive and guaranteed us a good spot to view the sunrise from. We drove around to the sunrise viewing area that looked over at the other side of Uluru and while the rock is spectacular, the sunset side and the better known and photographed face is just that little bit more pretty. However, I knew that as soon as the sun started to paint the rock face it wouldn’t matter which side we were looking at!
There was a three tiered viewing platform as well as a number of ground level viewing sights around but we headed up to the platform and got a great spot. It was still dark and eerie knowing there was an absolutely huge rock directly in front of us that we couldn’t see. On the way there, Brother Rick said it would be a really cool way to show someone who had never seen Uluru before what it looked like; take them out at sunrise and slowly watch the outline develop into something more. Agreed, that would be very cool!
I had only one problem with the sunrise viewing area. Wherever you looked at the rock from, there was a tree in the way! This one tree was literally smack bang in the middle of Uluru so when you took a photo, you got the rock, plus an unwanted tree. I don’t know if it was because it was so early and I am far from been a morning person but it super annoyed me. Stupid tree!
However, tree or not, the view was spectacular. As it got lighter, more and more of Uluru could be seen and it went from been a fuzzy outline to a shadowed but impressive rock. One again, the overcast sky meant that the rock wasn’t lit up as quickly as it usually would have been but when the sun poked out through a cloud, Uluru turned the most impressive red and lit up the area surrounding it. It certainly was what I had expected and something very special to be able to witness. In the distance, The Olga's were also bathed in an impressive orange light, rivaling their rock sister and with very little clouds over them turned an even more spectacular colour. However, with such a well known reputation, no-one could go past the awesomeness of Uluru at that moment.
With The Olgas in the background.
Driven by hunger and the smell of coffee from a tour group bus, we headed over to get some breakfast and then drove out to Katu Tjuta, or The Olga's. Just like Uluru is also known as Ayers Rock, Katu Tjuta is the traditional name for The Olga's however is a lesser known name than the name of their traditional counterpart. Katu Tjuta is a collection of 36 domes that cover 22 square kilometers, with the highest mound 546m high. Collectively, they are as impressive if not more so than Uluru. Anthony had made fun of me earlier in the trip for consistently defending Katu Tjuta, bigger than Uluru yet always overshadowed, the teasing only getting worse when I asked him ‘how would you feel if you were The Olgas’ when he said he wasn’t bringing his camera on our walk around them. But seriously, they’re pretty spectacular, and so many people forget them and get so fixated on Uluru. It’s quite sad really.
Our walk was a 7.4km loop around some of the bigger mounds, called The Valley of the Winds Walk and on much rougher terrain than yesterdays trek. However, it was quite spectacular. We began with an easy walk to the first lookout, looking over an impressive valley with some Olga mounds dotting the horizon. Then it got tricky. We had a sharp descent down into the valley of sorts and then walked up one of the smaller mounds into a canyon between two of the bigger ones. There was a lot of scrambling up the sheer face but the view from the top was absolutely spectacular. With the sun shadowed by the huge rocks, the air was cooler and a gentle wind was magnified as it travelled between the rocks into a strong gale, furthering the comfort we felt hidden from the heat. It was beautiful and I could have just stayed and admired the gigantic features for ages. However, we had to move on. We headed through to the second lookout, looking through two huge rocks over another impressive valley. It was kind of awkward when the guys were enjoying a rather embarrassing sing a long until we realised that there was an elderly couple there enjoying the peace, quiet and the view. Oops!
The walk between the mounds.
Totally there.
The view.
The colours were absolutely spectacular!
We enjoyed some flat but beautiful terrain for a while before beginning an ascent towards the finish line. The loop took us on the outside of the mounds we had just walked through however they weren’t nearly as impressive as the view within. Still, the view combined with the challenging walk was quite an experience and we clambered on admiring all there was to see. My favourite mound was one that stood away from the others but was growing spinifex on its top, so it looked like hair! It was kind of cute!
The mound with hair.
The walk was meant to take four hours, but we did it in just over two and a half hours. We climbed into the car and drove down the road to a shorter walk through a gorge with two Olga mounds on either side. Walpa Gorge was an easy trek across the rocks aided by walkways and steps to the end where the two mounds met and an Oasis flourished. It was very beautiful and proved to be a nice gentle stroll with some epic sheer cliffs on either side, reminding me of when my family and I went to Karijini back in WA.
With the walk only taking half an hour, we grabbed a quick bite to eat back at the petrol station, filled up the car and then drove to Kings Canyon, quite a distance away. I was given the task of driving and with everyone asleep in the back, entertained myself with my driving skills while admiring the changing landscape. Leaving Uluru, I constantly looked in the back mirror at the amazing sight, knowing it might be the last time I ever see it again. Still, with hundreds of pictures of the rock and memories to last a life time, I’ll be fine with this solo Uluru Katu Tjuta experience!
The map of our two walks.
Walpa Gorge.
Reflections.
At the end.
300kms and three hours later, we arrived at Kings Canyon Resort. We decided to camp in the caravan park and enjoy a shower, the first in three days other than wet ones! For anyone who has seen Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Kings Canyon features in it. It’s the landmark where the guys dress up in drag and walk across the cliff at sunset. I myself don’t remember that part and will be sure to see it again but the canyon is meant to be absolutely spectacular. Anyway after a sweaty game of rugby with the guys that reasserted my view that that game is stupid (and saw Henry cop a pole to the head), I headed over to the shower block ready for a nice warm shower to wash away three days of dust, sweat, sunscreen and dirt. Not to be; the hot water was down! My dream shower turned into lathering each limb with soap before sticking it under the frigid water with my teeth gritted, but I came out feeling a lot cleaner.
We all were forced to keep an eye on Henry during the night, who appeared to be concussed and said a few strange things. He sat with a cold orange juice to his head for a while before drinking it, but in the morning had no memory of doing so and asked us where we put his OJ. Awkward! The caravan park was quite nice, but there were all sorts of signs around the park warning against dingoes and we’d spied a few scrawny looking ones weren’t too fussed. I crawled into bed with the swag zipped up all the way just in case they paid me a visit but I wasn’t too concerned. I just wanted to sleep!
Day 4 – The King of Canyons and Alice Springs.
Turns out the dingoes were something to be concerned about. Brother Rick had awoken in the night to find a dingo sitting and staring at the sleeping figure of Henry. Later, he explained that it looked as if the dingo was trying to figure out the best way to take Henry away to their wolf pack and decided to stay up and protect us, so very gallant of him. Between the hours of 11pm and 3am, we had twenty separate dingo visits with three of those containing more than one dog. Wedged in between the boys, I was perfectly safe but it kind of freaked me out in the morning to discover a dingo may have been watching me sleep!
We arrived at Kings Canyon at about 10.30am and were pumped to complete the Canyon rim walk, a difficult four hour walk around the canyon sides. Having never seen any pictures of Kings Canyon before, I was excited to discover its beauty for myself. However the worst part of the walk began early as we struggled up a steep ascent towards the top. What looked like smallish hill with steps ended up only been a quarter of the whole thing and for someone who hates steps and has very little legs to climb up such large ones, it was quite hard. But as we got higher and higher covering more steps, the view got better and better and that alone forced me to scramble the rest of the way up, my heart pounding in my chest and my lungs screaming for air the whole way. But reaching the summit, I felt like a million bucks!
The walk to the summit.
The first view of Kings Canyon.
The walk was spectacular. It wasn’t along the entire cliff as I perceived it to be but more so around the areas surrounding the edge, through cities of rocks and amazing sights. The canyon itself was amazing. One of the sides was completely smooth, while the other had a funny little symbol of sorts embedded into the rocks that looked man made! It’s funny how things like that are made by the environment!
One side of the canyon.
The funny little symbol on the rock face.
The flat and smooth side of the canyon.
Looking at the valley of the canyon.
Little mounds around the area created a ripple effect that reminded me of the Bungle Bungles. Waves of rock weathered down over years and years gave the area an amazing effect and certainly made me feel like I was walking through a still developing geographical area. The sky was a beautiful blue and the cloud formations were far from normal, and the red of the rock, the blue of the sky and the white wispy clouds provided some beautiful pictures.
Absolutely stunning!
The boys stopped to do something silly, can't remember what it was.
So I entertained myself with macro photography!
The Pig Rock.
So we called it.
The walk took a lot longer than we thought but I suppose all the clambering up things took a lot of time and effort, so we were all quite tired by the half way mark and were alarmed to discover we had another three kilometers to go! The Garden of Eden was a welcome sight when we came across it. Named after the biblical garden, it is a collection of vegetation thriving in between a narrow part of the canyon and at the very end is a beautiful swimming hole. It was absolutely freezing and I didn’t dare go in fully but bathed my feet, letting the icy water soothe my sore ankle that I had twisted climbing around The Olga's yesterday. Henry proved to be a ‘gallant’ individual when he rescued the sunglasses of a Scandinavian tourist who had dropped them and watched as they fell into the water. As he tried to rescue them he slipped on the rocks and fell in completely with his phone in his pocket! The sunglasses were saved and the phone is now sitting in a bag of rice, working at about 80%. Still, Henry was commended that night on his chivalrous efforts.
The Garden of Eden.
The Garden of Eden pool from above...
...and below.
The last half of the walk was a lot easier than the first part and we completed it in no time. As much as we had enjoyed it, the sight of the car park was a welcomed relief and we clambered into the car and headed off to get some much needed lunch, regretting not bringing snacks along the journey. We stopped at Kings Creek Station and enjoyed a delicious lunch while checking out the very cheap souvenir shop. As ‘Adventurers’, we were permitted from buying souvenirs but the cheapness of the art allowed for some spending and I lashed out and brought some A4 wooden prints with Aboriginal art designs on them for only $7! Bargain!
Adventure reminders, not souvenirs.
We headed back to Alice Springs to do a bit of last minute shopping at Kmart and then finished where we started; Alice Springs Hungry Jacks. I enjoyed getting as much grease and fat into me before the Term 4 Balgo fast food fasting began, but was absolutely disgusted when we looked under the table to find a mouse sitting under Brother Ricks foot. Ew! The group had decided to begin heading back to Balgo, stopping at Tilmouth for some sleep and beginning the day with breakfast there the next day. So we jumped in the car and drove, all on Kangaroo watch and shouting at Rick to stop every time a roo was spotted. We weren’t far out of Alice Springs when we came across some Fire fighters doing a controlled burn just by the side of the road. It looked kind of dicey so Brother Rick hung back until he was told what to do. Someone eventually came over and said to just drive at a constant speed until we were out of danger so we headed out with large flames licking either side of the road and me hanging out of the window with the video camera. It was super cool!
Fire!
Driving through the fire.
Kangaroos are really are stupid animals; on more than one occasion did a kangaroo jump across the road in front of the car and then back again! However Kangaroo watch became nearly impossible to concentrate on when dry lightning broke across the sky in a spectacular fashion for the last hour of the drive. Lighting up the area it was absolutely incredible and so much better than TV! We found a nice quiet spot just outside of Tilmouth and had a rather uncomfortable but satisfying sleep. It even rained a bit!
Day 5 – Back to Balgo.
I awoke in the morning to Brother Rick asking if I had a good wake up song. He was looking for Shine by Shannon Noll which is on my iPod but I pretended I was asleep to gain a few extra minutes of shut eye. I hadn’t slept well and was bummed when he eventually found a replacement song. We drove to the roadhouse and got changed in the bathrooms, much better than behind a bush. As soon as the shop was opened I raced inside to see if my painting was still there; it was! I brought it plus some breakfast and we sat outside enjoying the beginning of the day. With this meal having to last us the whole day, we ate up what we could and climbed back in the car, ready for a day of driving.
I won't complain about the price of petrol back in Perth anymore.
My painting :)
Despite been absolutely exhausted, I couldn’t sleep and just sat trying to entertain myself during the journey. Angry Birds proved to work for about an hour until I got stuck on one of the levels and got frustrated. Instead, I watched the scenery and marveled at the amount of small tornadoes around sucking up dirt and ash along the way. At one stage we even passed through an uncontrolled fire, a dicey experience due to the amount of smoke and haze along the road that made seeing even a meter in front of the car very difficult. Crossing the border, we went ‘back in time’ reliving 1pm all over again! it was a welcome sight when we saw the Balgo turnoff and arriving home at 2.30pm couldn’t have been sweeter.
And that’s that! My Northern Territory experience, October the 8th to the 12th, 2011. Hopefully despite this post been absolutely humongous you have reached the end awake and already planning your own journey to central Australia, where the rocks are red, the dirt is red and you turn red if you forget to sunscreen every exposed part of your body. NT sunburn hurts! But other than that, get out there! Australia is so big, and there is so much to see. Be adventurous! :)
